Following another outbreak of bird flu in Suffolk, 22,000 turkeys in four different sites were killed last week as a precaution to try and prevent the spread of the disease. The spread of bird flu, which is proving to be a very serious threat to the poultry industry and to humans who eat birds, is the direct result of the stressful, filthy, cramped conditions that chickens and turkeys are raised in on factory farms, and when it causes a major scare as it is currently in the UK, the corporations that run these farms act like it’s the biggest surprise in the world.

Setting that aside for a moment, here’s PETA’s handy, pocket-sized guide to preventing bird flu. Be sure to share it with your friends and family!

1. Go vegetarian.

And here are some pics from PETA UK’s demonstration in Ipswich yesterday. Good stuff.

X17/Creative Commons

Generally, I would rather write about the paint drying outside our office than add another chapter to the increasingly tedious melodrama that is Britney Spears' biography, but when she does something stupid and irresponsible that involves animals (which is pretty much every time I check nowadays), I feel like I have to report on it. The latest on our Britney—pictured here with a stupid hat and a family of dead rabbits draped over her shoulders—is that she was spotted at a PETCO in Hollywood buying a caged parakeet to go with her prized collection of neglected children.

I totally understand that it must suck to be 25 years old and have the best years of your life well behind you, and I do realize she probably gets lonely at home between her stints in rehab, but somehow I just don’t think Britney Spears should be responsible for the care of another living thing. Seems to me she’s got enough on her plate just getting herself out of bed in the morning . . .

Britneyspearswatch/Creative Commons

Yeah, that's right. We got a giant bird costume.

For a little bit of context, you should check out our undercover investigation of two PetSmart locations which revealed appalling conditions for the animals sold by the stores. There's also a handy little factsheet here, which explains (for anyone who hasn't figured it out by themselves) why big birds don't belong in small cages. This picture's from a demonstration outside yesterday's PetSmart shareholder meeting in Chicago.